President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has responded to the United States (US) President Joe Biden over the recent decision regarding the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
President Museveni’s response is contained in a special message handed over to the Ambassador of the United States of America (USA) to Uganda, H.E William W. Popp, at State House Entebbe on Monday, December 4, 2023, during a meeting between the two personages.
While in the meeting, President Museveni and Ambassador Popp discussed a wide range of topics including the African Growth and Opportunity issue.
President Museveni’s letter was handed to Ambassador Popp who will deliver it to the US leader.
“H.E President Biden wrote to me about AGOA, so I have answered him. You will deliver the letter to him,” the President said.
On his part, Ambassador Popp reiterated the US government’s commitment to continue cooperating with Uganda through improved bilateral relations.
“We do want to continue conducting business with Uganda as a whole, through different projects. These projects could be worked on without any restrictions,” he noted.
In October, the US President Joe Biden revealed plans to expel Uganda, Gabon, Niger and the Central African Republic (CAR) from a special US-Africa trade program on allegations of either being involved in gross violations of human rights or not making progress towards democratic rule.
The US introduced the African Growth and Opportunity Act in 2000 with an aim of giving eligible Sub-Saharan African countries duty-free access to the US for more than 1,800 products.
President Biden said that, Niger and Gabon, both of which are currently under military rule following coups this year are ineligible for AGOA because they “have not established, or are not making continual progress towards establishing the protection of political pluralism and the rule of law.”
He also said that, the removal of the CAR and Uganda from the program was due to gross violations of internationally recognized human rights by their governments.
The US government had said that, it was considering removing Uganda from AGOA and introducing sanctions on the country after it passed a controversial Anti-Homosexuality Law.
President Museveni had previously noted that several American companies had already stopped importing textiles which fall under the AGOA trade deal, from Uganda because of the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Law.
“The homosexuals in the US are interfering with our export of textiles. Some of the orders have been cancelled there,” President Museveni was quoted by a National newspaper.
